Garth Brooks' classic "Ain't Goin Down (Til the Sun Comes Up)" tells a story at breakneck speed of a young couple who defy their parents and escape their houses to stay out all night.

In reality, Brooks and his co-writers Kent Blazy and Kim Williams stayed outside all day to write the song, and ended up with sunburns. Two weeks later, the song was on the radio.

Blazy told the story behind the song to Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International.

Bart Herbison: Teenagers go to a show, get a bite to eat. They head out for some late night dancing. She gets back at 4 a.m. The girl does not get home in time. But sneaks out again at 6 p.m. the next evening.

Kent Blazy: Hey, you know how it was.

BH: I just stayed out all night and pretended like something bad happened — (like) their car broke down. We didn't have cellphones back then. So, how did this song happen, Kent?

KB: Well, it's really interesting. A lot of times when Garth comes in, he has an idea on how he wants something to be on a record. He came in and there was no pressure. He said, "I want to write the first single off the new record, and I want them to be shotgun lyrics.” OK.

BH: But probably you can work with that.

KB: Oh yeah. I mean, I kind of figured he was thinking Chuck Berry or something like that. And so he just kind of threw out this idea, telling the whole story. And we had Kim Williams with us. Any time we got together, Kim was always the risque one.

We always blamed it on him. We just started laughing, writing, and Kim filled up a notebook full of lines. Then we finally went through, cleaned them up and got it the way we wanted. We told the whole story, and we worked all day ‘til we were sunburned. Because we had to go outside and work.

BH: (At) your house?

KB: At my house. And we had just moved into this house that needed a lot of work. So people were hammering and bang-banging so we went outside. And we finally decided we were done, and we are sunburned. So that's a good time to stop.

BH: So you finish it that day?

KB: Finished it that day. Then Garth wanted a work tape of it. I had a little bit of my studio set up. … I got this little drum machine going, and Kim and Garth were standing behind me, and I heard one of them say, "Oh, my God!" I turned around, and there were termites coming out of the floor, the ceiling and the walls, which isn't good when you have a letter that says there's no termites in your home. I think the drum machine (ticked) them off.

BH: That may be a new exterminator tool!

KB: I was freaked out about it. But Kim Williams, who had a great sense of humor, he said, "Man, when Garth and I wrote ‘Papa Loved Mama,’ there were cockroaches all over my apartment. And it was a No. 1 song! So this is going to be too!"

BH: I don't know that I've ever seen a single song that lends itself to a performance better than Garth doing this song just like ... I mean you can have the flu and get cured from this. You've seen him do it live, right?

KB: Yeah, I know, and it's so much fun to see him do it live. And it came out as a single. Then he tells me he's going to fly across the stage singing it in Dallas. And then we were doing a Bluebird (Cafe concert) thing a couple of months ago when he had his book come out. He had me start the song … and he's going "Get it faster! Get it faster!”

And I’m going "All right! All right!" Because he's used to the whole band rocking out on it. It's just funny. "Play it faster! Play it faster!"

About the series

In partnership with Nashville Songwriters Association International, we will interview a songwriter about his or her work every week.